UNIQUE CEREMONY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4064, 24 June 1938, Page 5

UNIQUE CEREMONY

A COMMEMORATIVE TREE. MIRO PLANTED IN FRONT OF POST OFFICE. An interesting little ceremony w’as performed at the local post office yesterday morning, when a young miro tree was planted in the small plot that it is proposed by the postal authorities to leave under the care of the Beautifying Society. The tree was the gift of Whiti Rapana, a chief of the Ngati-Raukawa tribe at Aotearoa, and in the presence of an assemblage which included the Mayor (Mr George Spinley) the town clerk (Mr D. Bockett), and Messrs J. Oliphant and H. A. Swarbrick (president and secretary respectively of Te Awamutu Historical Society), it was planted in the plot, in accordance with Maori custom with the tribal incantation to grow and flourish. Whiti Rapana delivered a short oration, this being interpreted by Mr John Tunoho, who explained that the object of the planting was to signify the complete unity of Masri and pakeha in peace for ever more. The Mayor accepted the gift on behalf of the burgesses of Te Awamutu, and assured the donor that it would be tended carefully, so that it would grow into a large tree, be fruitful, and be a lasting reminder of the goodwill existing between the two races.